An increasing number of applications allow a user, equipped with a terminal, to implement computer applications housed by a remote server of the terminal.
Typically, using the Internet network to enable an individual to be connected from a terminal, for example a computer situated at his home, to a remote server, for example situated in his workplace in order to access professional applications such as his mail or accounting, is known.
According to a first approach, this remote access via the Internet network is carried out by using a terminal 10 (FIG. 1) comprising a lightweight and minimal, or even nonexistent, operating system
Indeed, in this first approach such a terminal 10 only has the function of enabling, on the one hand, the display on a monitor 12 of images generated from data received from a server 16 hosting the applications required by the user 11 and, on the other hand, transmitting commands, entered by using a keyboard and/or mouse 14 by the user 11, to this server 16.
For its part, server 16 thus receives these commands, via the network 15 of the Internet type, and uses an operating system 18 to apply the commands issued from data capture tools 14 to the hosted applications.
In summary, the management of applicative means is entirely carried out at the level of the link-attached host server 18 while terminal 10 has a role of a remote man/machine interface between the end user 11 and the server 18 to, in particular, generate the displayed images.
This first approach is described for example in the document “14.2: Net2display™: a proposed VESA standard for remoting diplays and I/O devices over networks” by K. Ocheltree, S. Millman, M. Macdonnell, D. Hobbs, J. Nieh and R. Baratto.
It presents the disadvantage of not enabling common sharing of a desktop hosted at the level of the remote server between several users, this common sharing being such that a same desktop and/or associated applications are identically displayed for all users sharing this desktop.
In such a common sharing, each modification of the desktop, and/or its associated applications, controlled by a user, are displayed at the level of all common users.
In addition, such a method does not easily implement a personal sharing, named virtual sharing, of the desktop and its applications, this virtual sharing being such that different personal desktops are displayed at the level of each user in conformance with these commands.
In such a virtual sharing, modifications of the desktop, and/or its associated applications, controlled by a user, are only displayed at the level of users of this virtual desktop.
Indeed, sharing of desktops between several users was not provided in the Net2Display approach, where only the utilization of several desktops by a same client (for a given session) is provided.
According to a second approach, remote access is performed by using a terminal comprising an operating system sufficiently developed to enable several users to share a same desktop in solidarity.
For example, such an approach is implemented in the RDP 6 operating system under Windows™ 2008, from the Microsoft Inc. USA company, implemented at the terminal level.
However, this second approach is based on tools whose technical characteristics—for example in terms of communication protocols, memory capacities and/or work frequency, are unsuitable and distinct in relation to characteristics from the domain of high-speed public Internet access.
In fact, such a domain is characterized by the use of digital television decoders presenting limited resources and proprietary protocols specially developed for implementing its limited applications.
Consequently, sharing a desktop via such digital decoders requires a costly and complex adaptation of decoders and their applications so that they are compatible with the protocols and language of the applications to be shared.